Refusing God as king

Election time is coming in the States.

Every four years, people vote for the person they hope will lead the country to prosperity.  And when a new president takes his place, there is often hope in the hearts of the people.

But no president or political leader is the key to a prosperous nation.

That’s what Hosea pointed out here.

Hosea warned the people that God was going to soon punish the people for their sin.  That though there was currently prosperity in Israel under a wicked king in Jeroboam, it wouldn’t last.

God was about to dethrone him and his descendants.

Hosea then told the people that at that time, they would say,

We have no king because we did not revere the Lord.  But even if we had a king, what could he do for us? (Hosea 10:3)

In other words, things would get so bad, that they would lose all hope in their political leadership.

Why?  Because ultimately, there is no hope for a godless nation in which people live for themselves instead of for God.

There is no hope for a people that refuse to make God king in their lives.

What Hosea wrote about Israel, we could write about our culture today.  So many people have lost faith in the political system.

I talk to many Japanese whenever a new prime minister takes power, and it’s very rare that they think it’ll make a difference.

Most simply say, “It doesn’t matter.  Nothing will change.”  And most times, nothing significant does.

Hosea also talked about how the people were so corrupt, few people could be trusted to keep their agreements anymore, and that’s why there was a plethora of lawsuits.

Can anybody say, “America?”

Hosea then went on to say that when the gods that people set up in their lives fall, the people mourn.

You only have to look at all of the financial crises in the world to see that.

So many people set god as their money, only to lose it all.  As a result, people find themselves struggling financially, wondering how they’re going to survive.

And as they mourn,

[People] say to the mountains, “Cover us,” and to the hills, “Fall on us.”  (10:8)

Does that passage sound familiar?

Jesus quoted it on the way to the cross to the women who were weeping for him.  The people had rejected him as king, and as a result, disaster would soon come in the fall of Jerusalem less than 40 years later.

And so Hosea admonished the people,

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.  (12)

God tells us the same today.

It’s time to seek the Lord.  We’ll not find salvation in political leaders.  Nor will we find it in the gods of this world that we seek.  It can only be found in God.

So let us break up the hardened grounds of our hearts and soften it to the seed that God wants to plant in us.

Let us sow the righteousness of God in our lives.

Only then will we reap the fruit of his unfailing love and find true joy and prosperity in our lives.